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CRC
29th session
14 January 2002
Morning



Statement by Mary Robinson,
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Palais Wilson, Geneva
Monday, 14 January 2002




Mr. Chairperson, Distinguished Experts of the Committee, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a pleasure for me to address you again today, and to have the renewed opportunity to express the appreciation of my Office for your work.

As your first session of 2002 opens I realize that this year will be an especially busy one for all of you. In 2002, your Committee will work on the drafting of several General Comments, adopt reporting guidelines for the Optional Protocol on Sale of Children, contribute to and participate in the General Assembly Special Session on Children next May and start work under the two Optional Protocols of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. And, all that without mentioning your main responsibilities in examining state reports and the many other regular ad hoc activities which you undertake in order to improve the promotion and protection of children?s human rights.

Post-11 September

The tragedies that occurred in the United States on the 11th of September and their aftermath have absorbed the attention of the world, and of the United Nations, including the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. In the case of Afghanistan, we are all aware that children remain the first victims inside and outside of that country. One of the first challenges for the new interim Government in Kabul will be to ensure security, food, health and education to all children.

The terrorist attacks of 11 September naturally overshadowed the results of the World Conference against Racism that concluded in Durban a few days before. But in the aftermath it has become clear that these events have made even more relevant the World Conference commitments to eliminating discrimination and racism.

Currently at the UN building in New York there is a stimulating art exhibition selected from the hundreds of art works that were created by children for the World Conference. Thousands of young people - from 61 cities in 36 countries - created paintings, wrote poems and essays or signed pledges against racism as their contribution to the world Conference. In addition, after the 11 September attacks many young people from different countries responded with art work that expressed themes of peace, hope and tolerance under the theme of “against terrorism”.

The current display has integrated these expressions and reactions of young people to 11 September with the Durban youth exhibition under the rubric ART – art against racism intolerance and terrorism. That expresses exactly the need to press on with implementation of the Plan of Action from Durban.

I am very happy to inform you that the final version of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action is now available. It has been published on our web site and will soon be published in book form. Copies of the texts will be made provided to you during the session. The World Conference texts should be endorsed by the General Assembly. Meanwhile, I established at the beginning of this new year an Anti-Discrimination Unit in my Office, as recommended by the Durban Plan of Action. The Unit will take the lead in developing and implementing the OHCHR role in follow up.

Now that the Durban documents have been agreed, I will write again to all the human rights treaty bodies to encourage them to implement the Declaration and Programme of Action. I wish to express my gratitude to your Committee for the commitment made at your last session in 2001 to invite States Parties in all forthcoming reports to inform you of any relevant follow up by them of their Durban commitments. Your Committee has also decided to include on a systematic basis reference to implementation of the Durban.documents in your concluding observations on state reports. These decisions offer a model that I hope the other treaty bodies may consider.

Madrid Conference

A Conference on School Education in Relation with Freedom of Religion and Belief, Tolerance and Non-Discrimination took place in Madrid from 23 to 25 November, and was an important opportunity to look at a challenging and sensitive issue following both 11 September and the Durban Conference. This initiative was taken by Abdelfattah Amor, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, in partnership with the Government of Spain. The major objective of the conference was to formulate a strategy on the prevention of intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief by redesigning the role that school education at primary and secondary level should play. Ms. Ouedraogo, Vice-Chair of the Committee, participated in the Conference which has attended by some 800 participants including 80 States representatives. The contribution of the Committee on the Rights of the Child was very well received. The General Comment of the Committee on the aims of education was given wide circulation and proved to be a useful tool in formulating recommendations.

The Madrid Final Document recommends ways and means by which curricula, textbooks and teaching methods should contribute to the promotion of tolerance and non-discrimination based on religion or belief. I hope the Madrid Declaration (a copy of which is in your files) will be of long term value to you in your work.

GA Special Session on Children

As you are all aware, the General Assembly Special Session on Children - which is mandated to assess progress made by States in implementing the Declaration and Plan of Action of the 1990 World Summit on Children - had to be postponed after the tragic events that occurred in the United States. This Special Session will now take place from 8 to 11 May 2002 in New York.

The Special Session will be of considerable importance for the work of the Committee. From the perspective of our Office, we are actively supporting the preparations for the Special Session including offering our views on the final document to be adopted. I have emphasized consistently the need to have a rights-based approach to children?s issues, drawing upon the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international human rights instruments. I have sought equally to link the protection of childrens’ rights to the need to promote a culture of human rights in all countries including through human rights education. And our Office has emphasized the need to respect and protect the human rights of persons under 18 who are in conflict with the law.

The Special Session will have a particular significance for the Committee’s monitoring role in that States are likely to include in their reports information on measures taken and results achieved in the implementation of the 1990 Plan of Action. This will provide an opportunity for the Committee to link in the future the commitments made at the Special Session to the Convention and its reporting process.


UN Global study

As you are aware, at its last session the General Assembly agreed to support this Committee’s request to the Secretary-General to undertake a comprehensive and in-depth study on children and violence. That request had been the principal recommendation to result from the Committee’ Discussion Day on children and violence last September. The proposed study is an important breakthrough in the process of raising awareness about this issue and starting debate on how best to prevent as well as combat all forms of violence against children. My Office is committed to support this study along with other agencies, including UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO). The input of the Committee as well as that of non-governmental organisations, academic institutions and other expert groups, will be very important in ensuring that the proposed study makes a difference. In this connection, I attended the Tampere Conference in November last on the theme of ?Children, Torture and other forms of violence?, organized by the World Organization Against Torture, with the support of my Office. The Chair of the Committee was also present at this meeting which discussed ways to prevent, combat and eliminate all forms of violence against children. The Final Declaration of Tampere is included for information in your file.

Optional Protocols and Amendment to article 43 CRC

Turning to the two Optional Protocols to the Convention, we have now entered a crucial phase of their development. The protocol on Sale of Children will enter into force this Friday, 18 January 2002. The other Protocol on children in armed conflict will also enter into force very soon, on 12 February 2002. As at today, 13 States have ratified the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflicts and 16 have ratified the one on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

I am aware that some of you recently attended the 2nd World Congress on Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Yokohama, Japan (17-20 December 2001). This event was also significant in light of the future entry into force of the Optional protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. My Office participated in the preparatory process of this important event. Our contribution was to argue for the principle of non-criminalisation of child victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Children who become victims of such abuses should never be considered to be the perpetrators of these offences under domestic law. I am pleased to note that the Yokohama Declaration adopted at the Conference accepts this principle.

Other matters

Regarding the amendment to article 43.2 of the Convention on the increase of the membership of the Committee from 10 to 18 members, I am happy to note that the Secretary-General has recently received a number of new notifications. [112] notifications of acceptance from States parties have been registered so far. Only [18] notifications are still needed for the amendment to enter into force. As you are aware your Committee, UNICEF and our Office have taken diverse measures to encourage State parties to approve the amendment.

Finally, I wish to express appreciation of the fact that the Committee has decided at its last session to dedicate its next general discussion day to the issue of ?the private sector and child rights?. This is certainly a topic on which we still need a great deal of work for which the expertise of the Committee and its partners is welcome. My Office is actively involved in the debates over the human rights dimension of the business sector. It is also involved in the UN Global Compact project; a project that involves a large number of major private companies. The Committee?s discussion day will undoubtedly provide a chance to all of us to deepen our understanding of the social responsibilities of the private sector, including the way that privatization of servicing impacts on the enjoyment by children of their human rights.

I would like to conclude by expressing my appreciation for your ongoing work that has been and continues to be so helpful to OHCHR?s activities. We, on our part, continue to strive to provide you with high quality support in any way that we can. I wish you a productive and successful session.
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